College defenseman mulls speeding up move to Rangers
Ryan Lindgren, the 20-year-old University of Minnesota sophomore defenseman whose rights the Rangers obtained from Boston as part of the Rick Nash deal, is weighing his options in the wake of the Gophers’ failure to reach the NCAA tournament, The Post has learned.
Lindgren, the 49th-overall selection in the 2016 entry draft who is renowned for his leadership skills and all-around game, had been expected to return to school for his junior year. But the 6-foot, 198-pound lefty, a member of the last two Team USA World Junior squads, is believed to be considering turning pro.
It is not clear that Rangers management is encouraging such a move or believes it would be in the parties’ mutual interest.
The organization’s left side features Brady Skjei, Marc Staal, Ryan O’Gara, John Gilmour (who is currently playing his off-side in New York), Brendan Smith (toiling in Hartford), plus prospects Lindgren, Libor Hajek, Yegor Rykov, Sean Day and Alexei Bereglazov.
While Lias Andersson could play the remainder of the schedule, beginning with Thursday night’s game in Philadelphia, without the first year of his entry-level deal kicking in, the Blueshirts seem to be leaning toward promoting him from the AHL Wolf Pack in conjunction with fellow teen first-rounder Filip Chytil.
That would mean for Monday night’s match at the Garden against the Capitals.
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The seventh-overall Andersson, who opened the season in Frolunda and has 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in 23 games since joining Hartford following the World Juniors, can play nine games before the first year of his entry-level deal kicks in. The 21st-overall Chytil, who played the season’s first two games with the Rangers before being assigned to Hartford, has a seven-game allotment before burning the year on his deal.
“We’re slowly working on the two young kids,” Lias and Filip,” coach Alain Vigneault said before Tuesday’s 5-3 Garden defeat to Columbus. “I would say there’s a very good chance that we’re going to see both of those kids up here real soon.”
The objective remains for Kevin Shattenkirk, sidelined since Jan. 18 in the aftermath of surgery to repair a torn left meniscus, to return this season.
“He and I both agree, even if it’s just one game, that it’s a good idea for his sake to get out there and play,” Vigneault said. “People might disagree with that, but if his knee is 100 percent, we’d like him to get in as many games as he can.”
Shattenkirk, shut down briefly last week by the medical staff, has resumed skating.
“It’s a matter of getting himself in game-timing and conditioning,” the coach said. “I think [returning] is a good thing for his psyche and mindset. He feels the same way.”
Compromised as he played through the injury he incurred the second week of training camp, Shattenkirk recorded 23 points (five goals, 18 assists) in 46 games with a career-worst 47.5 Corsi before undergoing surgery.
Brandon Dubinsky, who has endured a season in which he was stripped of his alternate captaincy and was sent home from a road trip in January in the midst of a stretch in which he missed 18 games with an unidentified personal/physical issue, was designated as a healthy scratch for what is believed the first time in his NHL career.
Dubinsky, who played 393 games with the Rangers before going to Columbus in 2012 as part of the Rick Nash deal, had gone 17 straight games without a point since Feb. 14.